North Carroll High

Gary E. Dunkleberger, who has played a key role in shaping the curriculum in county schools during his 18 years in the system, has been named acting principal at North Carroll High School.Dunkleberger, assistant superintendent for instruction since 1994, began work in his new position Monday.The appointment is one of the first for William H. Hyde, a Dunkleberger colleague who was selected by the school board this month as the superintendent of county schools.Dunkleberger will serve as acting principal until Tuesday -- the end of the fiscal year -- at which time Hyde will recommend to the school board that Dunkleberger be made principal, Hyde said.

An informal survey of North Carroll High School parents indicates that most of them support a pilot program of fewer but longer class periods next year.The "four-mod day" is close to official approval. The School Improvement Team at North Carroll is to vote on it Feb. 18."I expect the decision will be to go with it, because we have a very positive response," Principal Gregory Eckles said yesterday.Wednesday night was the third in a series of parent forums that the school sponsored. Over the three nights, 418 people attended and 325 of them filled out surveys, Dr. Eckles said.

A GARBAGE DUMP, the Bible and a dozen singing dancers in tie-dyed clothing are the unusual elements of the musical production "Godspell," coming up at North Carroll High School.The school drama club produces one musical a year. Students are at the helm of this production, with senior April Deigert as accompanist for the entire score and student Jaime Bolster assisting choreographer Michelle Stricklin (of the North Carroll Recreation Council). All but one member of the 12-member cast has been in the award-winning North Carroll Ensemble.

The Carroll County commissioners have decided that sheriff's deputies, instead of Hampstead police officers, will be the first to respond to incidents at North Carroll High, a school of nearly 1,400 students that is within the town limits. Because of the burden the numerous calls from the school placed on the town's police force of eight officers, the county commissioners approved a policy yesterday that gives initial responsibility to the larger sheriff's department. It takes effect immediately.

The North Carroll Drama Club is undertaking a serious challenge.The students will present their fall production of Judith Guest's "Ordinary People" at 8 p.m. today and tomorrow.The play's action focuses on Conrad Jarrett, a teen-ager so distraught over the death of his older brother, Buck, that he attempts suicide.The movie version, starring Timothy Hutton and Mary Tyler Moore, was released in 1980.The play is emotionally demanding for the nine student actors."Ms. Rooney [the drama teacher]

Carol Bentz of Manchester battled the bureaucracy and won.And North Carroll High School in Hampstead will soon have a stuffed great blue heron to prove it."It was horrendous, but he's my bird," she said, after obtaining permits from Minnesota to Massachusetts to allow the preservation of "Steve," a great blue heron that died near her summer home on the Platte River in Michigan.Mrs. Bentz spent days on the phone, negotiating a maze of state and federal bureaucracies that might have blocked a less determined person.

"Hi-ho! Hi-ho! You ought to see the show." That is the song that drama students at North Carroll High School are singing as they invite the public to their production of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs of the Black Forest."Directed by drama teacher Roberta Rooney, the play gives the students an opportunity to showcase the school's wealth of talent."We picked the play with a play-reading committee because it was fun and it offered more people the opportunity to act," Ms. Rooney said.This version of the children's story involves Queen Bella, played by 17-year-old senior Debbie Fleming, and her desire to be the most beautiful in the land.

WESTMINSTER -- Rumors that Carrie Siegman and her classmates outscored other teams to win the county's first-ever Envirothon Competition came during an environmentally correct lunch (no Styrofoam or throwaway plates and utensils) at the Hashawha Environmental Appreciation Center.The six-member green team from North Carroll High School garnered 400.25 points (out of a possible 500), answering correctly more questions about soils, wetlands, wildlife, aquatics and forestry than rival teams from the county's other four high schools.

An expected influx of high school students during the next few years in Carroll County public schools has prompted school officials to consider shrinking the attendance area of North Carroll High School and contemplate scrapping plans to reduce capacity at mammoth Westminster High School. Enrollment projections released this month show that county schools are expected to gain nearly 800 high-schoolers in the next four years while elementary and middle school populations level off or decline slightly.

North Carroll High School is raising the bar.The Hampstead school has established an ambitious five-year plan to improve student performance as part of a new school accreditation process.The project, developed by North Carroll's staff during the past year, includes measureble goals and calls for the school to meet the following objectives by 2003:Increase the school's SAT scores by 50 points in both the verbal and math categories; achieve an average school score 10 percent above the average statewide score on the new Maryland High School Assessment Program tests; and ensure that all seniors meet the school's new technology proficiency standards.